


So Many Birthdays

by StarlightSystem



Series: Transcendence AU [28]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Alternate Universe - Transcendence (Gravity Falls), Angst, Dipper kills a demon but it's not graphic, Dissociation, Gen, Hurt No Comfort, Past Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-31
Updated: 2019-08-31
Packaged: 2020-10-03 23:57:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20461664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarlightSystem/pseuds/StarlightSystem
Summary: Mira and Ian surprise Alcor on his birthday. For some reason, Alcor can’t help but feel like it's all just a bit too familiar.





	So Many Birthdays

**Author's Note:**

> Happy 20th birthday to Dipper and Mabel Pines! I'm celebrating their special day by releasing this fic that I've been working on since my own birthday a few months ago. Enjoy!
> 
> This takes place, as always, in the [Transcendence AU](https://transcendence-au.tumblr.com/)!

The two demons moved perfectly in lockstep, neither taking their eyes off the other. To an untrained observer inexplicably lost in the Mindscape, the pair of them appeared to be in fierce, matched competition. Internally, however, Eg'drodaak the Writhing's thoughts were frantically pounding like blood through arteries. Ey had put up a good fight so far, but ey knew Alcor was just playing with em, that ey had no chance of survival against the Lord of the Mindscape, and that truly, ey was royally fucked.

Still, ey was bound to try, bound by a really ill-conceived deal with a human made while zoinked out on Yggdrasil. Ey still had no idea how the human had managed to bind a fully rabid demon for long enough to make a deal, but to be honest, ey knew that eir wild Friday nights were going to catch up with em -- it was only a matter of time before something like this happened. If ey somehow got out of this alive, ey was going to kick the stuff for sure.

The world was still but for this unfolding game of cat and mouse. The featureless background of the Mindscape started to freak Eg'drodaak out. Ey knew that Alcor had complete control here, so why wasn't he _doing_ something? Ey forced out a snarl, hoping to intimidate the monster before em, and... and... Alcor just rolled his eyes in response!

Alright, that was enough. Eg'drodaak knew ey was going to die and was sick of waiting. Ey hunched up on eir 17 legs and then sprung forward at the fluffy-haired beast, roaring demonic obscenities too unknowable to print for human consumption (that means you).

Alcor still just stood there. He saw the other demon launch at him, and was preparing to swipe back with a clawed hand when he felt a ringing in his head. A tug on a bond. He was being summoned. Not just by any human, either, he was being summoned by Mira.

He looked up at the writhing mass of flesh soaring through the air at him, and sighed.

"Eggy, I've gotta go," he said, sounding bored more than anything else. "Not that this wasn't fun and all, but I've got more important things to do. Consider yourself lucky, and d҉ò̩̺͇ǹ̝̥͕̰'҉ṯ̛ ̫̖̹͢f̻̟͍͉͜u͍̝͔̖̗͎̲c͖̩̝k̢̩͓̯i̝͓̦n̛̹͔̪g̹ ̱̺̝̼̠m͔̠̘͎̪̣ͅe͕̱̺͉͚s̮͉̗̪s͕͎̩͉͙ ͉w̗̗i͉͚̰̩͉t̢̻̲ͅh҉ ͔m͈͓͎͝y̫̞͇̼͚̦͠ ͙͕̩͍̗̲s̩̙̙̱͎hi͎̥͕͔͙̖̘t̳͉̯͚͇͕̥ ̸̬͚a͕g̼̳̱̞̰̣̲ą̗͉̯͓̳̙͚ḭ̵n̖͍̦̗."

With that, Alcor vanished, leaving Eg'drodaak to collide messily with the ground. Wheezing, ey picked emself up, and peered around with a multitude of eyes. What the shit had just happened? It was good to be alive, but...

Aw, z̫̙̟g̝̲̘lo̙̤͡o̭̞̞̺̰ͅͅk̫̠̙̞, this meant ey actually had to give up Yggdrasil.

* * *

Mira's apartment was dark.

Alcor looked around. The microwave in the kitchen silently blinked "12:00", unperturbed by the demon that had materialized in front of it. It was too quiet -- usually at least Ian would be up, illuminated by the flickering screen of his computer and tormented with thoughts of deadlines and corporate meddlers. Not tonight, apparently.

A piece of paper with his summoning circle lay on the kitchen table, a small dab of blood visible in the center. Something was wrong -- Mira should be here, she summoned him. Did something happen to her and Ian?

He closed his eyes and started walking toward the living room, rubbing his temples and trying to wake up his omniscience. Stupid fight with Eg'drodaak, distracting him from stuff that was actually important. Ey should be honored that he didn't just immediately strike em down for trying to steal one of his Flock. Lost in thought, he stepped into the living room and--

"Surprise!"

Alcor opened his eyes as the light flashed on, revealing that Mira was mere inches away from his face. He stumbled backwards a bit, human instinct unnecessarily yelling at him to gasp.

"Wh-what's going on?"

"Happy birthday, Alcor!" Mira yelled. She threw herself forward and embraced her oldest friend in a massive hug.

"Yeah, what she said," came Ian's voice. Alcor looked up from the squealing Mizar wrapped around him to see Ian sitting on the couch, beside a big ice cream cake and a pile of board games.

Alcor just stared at him and opened his mouth, trying to find words but only managing to emit strange gurgling noises.

Mira let go of him and stepped back. "What do you think?"

"H-how, how did-"

"I hope it's the right day!" Mira warbled, dashing over to Ian and holding his hand.

Ian grinned. "It was either this or the day the Transcendence happened, and we figured ehhh maybe the day you died wouldn’t have gone over as well."

Alcor continued to stare in amazement. "How did you know today was my birthday?" he finally got out. “There isn’t a person alive who remembers that.”

An evil grin crept onto Mira's face. "It wasn't that hard, buddy. You’re a twin, and Mabel Pines is a historical figure. Her birthday is on Wikipedia."

The room seemed to get colder. “Oh.”

There was an awkward silence. Alcor thrummed his fingers against his temples, trying to block out the deafening sound of his friends’ hearts beating.

Ian coughed. “Should we have… not done that?”

Alcor shook his head, and the room was quieter again. He gave a nervous chuckle. “No, that's… that's pretty crafty of you two, I'm impressed.”

His friends looked relieved. Ian put his hands up. "Don't look at me, this was all her idea.”

Mira slapped him playfully. "Hey now," she retorted, grinning again. "_We_ thought it'd be nice. It's probably been a long time since anyone remembered your birthday.”

“Or knew that you even had one,” Ian added.

Mira glared at him, and then looked back at Alcor. “Okay, yeah, it’d be weird to celebrate you getting older, because you're an ageless entity of pure horror and all, but a birthday can also just be a day to celebrate a person, and the fact that they’re still here."

Alcor bit his lip, and his mind flickered to a log cabin in Oregon; to a little over a hundred years of cake and streamers with a human woman who looked remarkably like him; to the warm embrace of one, two, three stars in the summer after the saddest day of his afterlife; to the dwindling thoughts of humans -- his belongings -- who were once close but drifted further and further, shared blood growing thinner and thinner, until his family was alien to him and unrecognizable but for the name; and then to the cold nights crying in the Mindscape because everyone was gone and _he was still here_ until he swore to never again let this pathetically mortal anniversary have such control over him and his emotions, and-

"Tyrone?"

Alcor blinked, and shook his head, trying to disperse the clouds that had gathered there. He let out a deep breath he didn't realize he was holding -- and why would he, when he didn't need to breathe? -- and tried to ground himself. He realized he had taken his shoes off, and took advantage of this by wiggling his toes so he could feel the sand flow around them, feel how warm its caress was, feel the texture bring him home. He was struck by the thought of how silly he must look -- a demon playing around in the sand.

"Was this a bad idea?" Bentley asked.

Bentley, sitting next to him, seemed small, smaller than usual, and it was odd and uncomfortable to see him worry about him like this again. His aura was a mess of colors, and Alcor felt a pang of guilt, because he remembered every time Bentley had looked like that, every time a Mizar had feared him or hated him or rejected him despite his best efforts, and that was really all he could give because he was a _demon_ after all. He didn’t deserve this.

He cringed and shook his head, which was still wrapped in fog. He’d made amends, hadn’t he? Things were good with Bentley, weren’t they? He had to think about the present. He had to think about the future.

Torako was on the other side of the pocket dimension, for some reason. In stark contrast to Bentley, her aura was mostly consumed by a bright glorange-colored hope. She was so easy to read, her aura, her body language, the look in her eye all absolutely screamed “We’re gonna cheer you up you big dummy!” Well, maybe Mabel would have said that. But Torako was so full of the same comforting energy that he couldn’t help but look at these two caring humans and smile.

"No," he said. "It's perfect."

Torako and Bentley grinned, and everything was alright again. The former picked up a piece of cake and offered it to her demonic friend. "Your offering, m'lord," she intoned, giggling.

Bentley’s smile wobbled, but Alcor just laughed. "Why, thank you, m'lady. What is it you want that you have summoned me, the great and terrible Alcor?"

"Lord Alcor," Torako replied dramatically, "we wish only to celebrate thou, and hope that we, your humble worshippers, have remained in your thoughts."

Bentley elbowed Torako. “Hey, no need to boost his ego _that_ much,” he mumbled, and Torako laughed.

“You’re right! Tyrone’s definitely not the coolest person born on this day. When I was researching Mabel’s birthday, I found a lot of other really cool things about her. From the way you talk about her, I thought she was some kind of saint, but she was such a badass!”

Alcor frowned. “You knew she worked with me to take out dangerous cults. It’s just like what the three of us do together.”

“Yeah, but you never told me she burned a convention center to the ground!”

“There was a perfectly good reason for that. A huge cult was trying to summon Sparkleshy the Hirsute.” His voice cracked, and the room suddenly seemed far away. “She probably saved thousands of lives that day but all anyone remembers is a destroyed building.”

His thoughts started to feel very thick. “Come to think of it, that was our birthday too. I busted her out of a holding cell and tessered her home. Grunkle Stan had bought us an ice cream cake with little flames drawn on it in icing. She sacrificed half of it so I could be corporeal for the evening, and we played board games all night.”

Alcor flopped onto the couch, and stuffed a fork of cake into his mouth. He rolled it around with his tongue, but didn’t chew, didn’t swallow, didn’t breathe. Alcor looked up at his friends, and in his vision they began to glitch out. The room went dark, and there was a shadow next to him -- a brown haired woman, so heavily artifacted that he could barely make out the symbol on her sweater. He dropped his fork in surprise.

Torako was holding the cultbasher, and her smile grew wider and wider. She cackled and the brown haired woman next to Alcor started to flicker in and out of existence. The room shook and Torako screamed, but at the same time didn’t, and then she wasn’t there but she was, and the cultbasher was lying on the ground and Alcor twitched because that was _hers_ and it needed to be treated with respect. He shot to his feet, and wobbled a bit, weary from the chaos in the room. He made his way carefully to the discarded bat and picked it up.

“Dipper?”

A golden, glimmering tear rolled out of his eye and trailed down his cheek, pitifully obvious and with no attempt made to conceal it. His sister sat down by him with her own piece of cake.

“What’s wrong?” Belle asked.

Alcor gulped. His hands were empty. “Little bit of a headache, that’s all.”

He sat on the couch next to his twin, and smiled at her. She grinned back, though something in her eyes told him that she wasn’t entirely convinced he was okay.

Lionel watched him from the other side of the coffee table, his hands gripping a worn box of Scrabble. “If this is painful, we don’t have to do it.”

Alcor flinched, and Belle grabbed his hand. His nails were short and dull -- he was still just a boy.

“No, I’m glad, really!” He shook his head, letting the tears fly away. “She means a lot to me, and I really appreciate that my new family wants to celebrate my old family.”

“It’s for you too, silly!” Belle bopped him on the head with her free hand. “Guess what, you’re still here, and that’s worth celebrating in my book!”

Alcor chuckled and bopped her right back. “Yeah, but Dipper Sterling already has a birthday that he shares with his sister and I like that birthday a lot too!”

Belle giggled and let go of his hand. She pulled a birthday hat onto his head, over top his pine tree hat, before holding his hand again. “But Dipper! Don’t you see? Two birthdays a year means twice as much fun!”

Lionel gave her a bemused look. “It also means getting older twice as quickly.”

Alcor smiled weakly. “Well, that’s not really a problem for me.” He took another bite of cake, and then started coughing.

Belle’s grip on his hand tightened, and he looked down. His vision flickered, and for a moment, he had claws again.

"You sure you're alright?" Noie asked. Her voice sounded strained.

"Yeah," Alcor said, mouth full of cake. "I was just thinking.”

Lady Star Mittens of Sparkle Town rubbed her head up against his side and purred.

He swallowed the piece of cake, and looked up. “I can’t celebrate the fact that I’m still here. It’s kind of a given, and it’s tough for me to deal with. And, a birthday is just a celebration of the passage of time, something that I kind of have too much of.”

“Here we go, here comes the brooding Alcor we all know and love,” Lucy Ann said, rolling her eyes. Lane giggled.

“I wasn’t done!” Alcor yelped. “I was going to say that a birthday is a very human celebration, and that on my birthday, maybe what I could do is look back at the last year and be thankful for the humans that put up with me.”

Mabel smiled at him.

He faltered, and broke into a coughing fit. When he spoke again, there was a little more echo than he was used to -- the sound of his voice chopped up and distorted through time. “What… what makes me happy today is that _you're_ still here."

He didn’t recognize the hands that grabbed his wrists, nor the ones that pulled him close for a hug. Alcor’s mind flooded with names because he couldn’t remember which one this was and who he should mourn and was there even any reason to at this point? It was overwhelming, so he closed his eyes and found his mind wandering to his words.

It had been a pretty speech, one designed to gloss over the fact that most of the humans he’d ever cared about were not in fact still here. A pretty speech, and yet Alcor found himself trying to believe in its message anyway. So he returned the hug, squeezed back and felt the love fill him up.

“Alcor?”

There was a confused squeak, and he opened his eyes. Eg’drodaak was staring at him, eyes wide in terror. Ey was holding one of his Nightmares again, and he had his hand clenched around eir wrist.

Oh. Right.

Alcor shook his head and wiped the tears from his eyes. In one quick motion, he effortlessly tore off Eg’drodaak’s head and sank his teeth into eir entrails, gorging himself loudly out in the open where the other demons could see so that everyone was reminded that y͖̳͙̖͈o̩̻̩̞͔̣͢ͅu̹̻̯̞̬͈͎ ̝̬̞d͇̰̟ͅo̶n̼͡'͞t ̵͈͉̜̝̘͕m͕̠͉͉e̱̝͇̦̬s̬͇̖̼͉͈̹͞s҉̦ ̯̤w̱̮̩̻͈̙̭i̶͖̰͙̯̝ͅt̕h̬ ̴̮̮̣Ą͕̩ͅl͈̀c҉̤̗̭o͇̤̬̗̫̺r͉̜̭̠̪̜̲.

He sat there in the Mindscape, idly crunching on Eg’drodaak’s remains, lost in thought. There was no pleasure in the activity -- that part of him, usually so loud and demanding, held no candle to the grief his human side was feeling. If anything, he longed for the rush of power he usually felt when he did this -- he wanted nothing more than to go full demon and escape the memories chaining him to the ground on this day.

No. Who was he kidding? What he wanted was a big slice of birthday cake. This demon tasted like garbage.

Lolonja quietly trotted up to him, and sat there by his side. He absent-mindedly started to pet her coat, a curious and slightly demeaning behavior she chose to allow because she’d seen him in this mood before, and she knew what day it was. The Master was upset, and only time -- time which had stricken him so hard in the first place -- could help him now.

“Happy birthday, Master.”

He grabbed her tight, and buried his head in her coat. It was days before he moved again from that spot.

**Author's Note:**

> You probably know who Belle, Mira, and Bentley are, but as for the other Mizars:
> 
>   * Noie is from [Noie’s Brother](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17593598)
>   * Lady Star Mittens of Sparkle Town is from [Sleep Time](https://archiveofourown.org/works/4336205)
>   * Lane is from [Lucy Ann & the Lunch Bunch](https://archiveofourown.org/series/1462738)
> 
> Zalgo translations:
> 
> Consider yourself lucky, and don't fucking mess with my shit again.
> 
> Aw, zglook, this meant ey actually had to give up Yggdrasil.
> 
> In one quick motion, he effortlessly tore off Eg’drodaak’s head and sank his teeth into eir entrails, gorging himself loudly out in the open where the other demons could see so that everyone was reminded that you don't mess with Alcor.


End file.
